Over the past six years, Solas, the state agency responsible for further education and training (FET), has delivered more than 100,000 skills development opportunities to businesses and employees around Ireland through its Skills to Advance initiative.
Skills to Advance is a national upskilling and reskilling initiative that assists employers to develop new skills in their teams, improve processes and cost savings, and increase their competitiveness through highly subsidised training.
“Initiatives like this are designed to makes upskilling highly accessible to local businesses across the country,” explains Solas director of enterprise, employees and skills Mary Lyons. “We put a lot of effort into working with enterprise partners to ensure that Skills to Advance meets the needs of business.”
The programme is a response to an identified unmet need, she adds. “We carried out some research and identified a gap in training provision. We consulted with existing training providers and with businesses and asked why people were not availing of training and development opportunities when they were offered. Cost, time, local availability and relevance were the key issues.
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“We also found that employers were reluctant to release people to go on training courses because the people concerned could be in key production or customer facing roles. We considered all these issues and how to address them when we were developing Skills to Advance.”
The emphasis has been on local, flexible delivery and the provision of a wide range of courses to meet the needs of employees in businesses across all sectors. “All Skills to Advance courses are delivered locally by the network of 16 Education and Training Boards (ETBs) around the country so they are available locally,” Lyons points out. “The courses can be delivered in-person, online and in blended formats and are offered during the day, in the evenings and at weekends and that gives the flexibility needed to fit in with shift patterns, work schedules and people’s lives.”
Relevance is a key issue. “Last year we delivered 2,500 different courses in areas such as healthcare, hospitality, sustainability skills, digital business skills and more,” she says.
Leadership and management training is also offered in partnership with Enterprise Ireland. The Leadership and Management Development Programme helps businesses upskill their employees in leadership and management skills and focuses on key areas like financial planning, strategic business planning, change management, team management and resilience.
“There is very strong demand for this programme as these skills are key to the survival and growth of companies. We also see the programme as a key point of entry to companies. People coming out of the courses can make their employers and colleagues aware of the other training opportunities available. They can also influence other employees to avail of training as well as influence upwards to get the company to invest in training.”
The cost issue has also been addressed. “The courses are highly subsidised,” she explains. “For example, where a company releases an employee for training, the cost of that time is defrayed against the employer’s contribution to the training. This is a key factor in encouraging companies to avail of the training on offer.”
The Skills to Advance scheme is proving very valuable in the current very tight labour market, Lyons adds. “Employers recognise that they can’t solve skills deficits through recruitment; they need to upskill and reskill their existing staff. Upskilling is now being used to ensure the existing workforce can meet evolving demands of companies with development of new skill sets. Employers have become much more flexible and adaptable and where there are insufficient graduates for certain roles, they are willing to upskill current employees to meet those needs.
“As well as that, they want to offer training and development opportunities to staff to attract new entrants and future-proof their own business and improve their competitiveness,” she continues. “Employees are increasingly looking at career development opportunities when deciding where they want to work. Also, businesses are now being asked to prove their sustainability credentials to customers and other partners so green and sustainable business skills have become very important.”
The time taken to complete a course remains an issue for many people. “That became very obvious to us and we developed new suite of micro-qualifications programmes in response,” says Lyons.
Known as FET micro-qualifications, rather than micro-credentials, due to their recognition on the National Qualifications Framework, the programmes are bite-sized, accredited programmes that deliver targeted training in rapidly transforming skill areas. FET micro-qualifications are developed collaboratively between Solas, ETBs and industry partners to ensure employees receive targeted, relevant upskilling for their sector.
To ensure value and accessibility, FET micro-qualifications are highly subsidised, delivered flexibly and short in duration – amounting to around 50 hours of tutor and self-directed learning combined.
“Each course involves around 25 hours of direct and 25 hours of self-directed learning which normally involves people working on a project for the benefit of their employer,” she notes. “These programmes give people an opportunity to progress their careers and bring valuable new skills to their employers.”
FET micro-qualifications are available in emerging skill areas, such as digital business skills, green and sustainability skills, business innovation, advanced manufacturing and robotics, market development and more. New programmes are in development to target further emerging sectors, such as artificial intelligence, corporate sustainability reporting and biopharma skills. These FET micro-qualifications will launch throughout 2025 and will be available through the network of local ETBs nationwide.
“The micro-qualification model is key for the future provision of upskilling opportunities,” Lyons says. “People are more inclined to take small incremental training courses and are more likely to do more of them. Our ambition at Solas is to continue to offer relevant, accessible high quality training and development opportunities like these which help employees to advance their careers and future-proof employers’ businesses.”
For more information, visit skillstoadvance.ie
